I’ve been meaning to post these for some time, work and life has been keeping me from it.Â If I sent you a JimOnLight.com sticker, please shoot a pic of it somewhere and email it to me!Â I’m posting these as I get them, and this is the first batch.

Artist Ron Arad created Lolita, the above fixture, back in 2004 – right now it’s sitting at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC for an exhibit called No Discipline of Ron’s work.Â The exhibit opens August 2 and runs through the 19th of October.

It’s an interesting work, isn’t it?Â Swarovski crystals, LEDs that can either be invisible or display messages.Â I would really hope that the fixture could also just light up, as that many crystals and that configuration could really make some interesting looking room lighting.

I’ve heard nothing but praise for Johnny R. Goode’s lighting design for The Disco Biscuits at Red Rocks Ampitheatre here in Morrison, CO for what the band called Bisco Inferno back at the end of May.Â I was very sad that I wasn’t able to attend that show and chat with Johnny afterwards, but I was making money at another gig in another part of the country, so the emotions all worked themselves out.Â Next time, Johnny, as I want to chronicle the new gear and ideas you put into the rig!

Oreck, the company that makes products that suck (like vaccuums!) has called up our friend the ultraviolet light class C samurai and made a vacuum called the Halo.Â In addition to having twin motors for ultra sucking power (this is getting out of hand), the Oreck Halo uses UV-C light to kill as much bacteria as possible while cleaning your floors.

Seriously though, it’s $599.Â That’s a lot of vacuum.Â That’s more than a Dyson.Â It does come with 3 yearly “tune-ups” for that wad of bread you have to put down for the Halo.

The Showbeam 2.5 from Barco/High End is out rocking the road.Â Butch Allen has some out with No Doubt, Loz Upton has some out with Crystal Method, and Brian Hartley has some ShowBeams out with Aerosmith.Â Here’s the press release from High End Systems:

No Doubt, The Crystal Method and the upcoming Aerosmith tour have one thing in common: they all are debuting a new Barco product — the High End Systems SHOWBEAM 2.5 — in their shows.

The SHOWBEAM 2.5 is a new 2500-watt automated wash luminaire, distinguishing itself with a revolutionary Twin Beam. This feature allows for two hard-edge beams to exit the fixture on command, with variable control over the Twin Beam deviation and rotation speed — all with little brightness degradation. Users may add incremental color to the Twin Beam by using the CMY color mixing system.

No Doubt’s Lighting Designer Butch Allen says, “These lights are amazing. Well done!” Tour lighting contractor Epic Production Technologies is supplying 6 SHOWBEAM 2.5s, along with 6 High End Systems DL.3 Digital Lights. No Doubt went out on its North American tour May 2.

The Crystal Method’s LD Lawrence “Loz” Upton says, “First of all you can use SHOWBEAM 2.5 as a very powerful washlight. I love the colors, and I love the colors with the ring of LEDs and it works really well in the show with our circular trussing. The next thing is, at a moment’s notice, you can just turn on the Twin Beam effect and it’s pretty hallucinogenic because you go from a beam focus and then all of a sudden you’ve got this crazy two-beam focus that comes in, which is just awesome. It also has a cool oscillation effect. This is an effects driven show and SHOWBEAM 2.5 adds to the layers of looks to match our layers of sound. The High End Systems products are very innovative and they work well for me personally.”

Delicate Productions is the lighting contractor for the tour, which kicked off May 5 in North America. In addition to SHOWBEAM 2.5, the Crystal Method tour includes SHOWGUN, StudioPix, Axon, CLM projectors with control from a Wholehog 3 and DMX Processor 8000.

Aerosmith’s North American tour starts June 10. Lighting Designer Bryan Hartley says, “SHOWBEAM 2.5 will work out great in my design. I’m excited about using it. I needed a strong washlight and the Twin Beam is really cool. Plus it has the LED ring, which gives it a SHOWGUN look. I’ll have 10 SHOWBEAMs in my rig for the tour, and I’m psyched.”

Hartley will control the lighting with a Wholehog 3 console and a DMX 8000 processor. Creative Stage Lighting is supplying the SHOWBEAM 2.5s to Epic Production Technologies, the lighting contractor.

Creative Stage Lighting’s George Studnicky IV says, “High End Systems knows what designers want. Another year goes by and HES brings another innovation and benchmark to the table. It’s a very exciting time to be in our industry. With the further development of LEDs and the automated lighting market, there is truly a custom design to every show you see. The SHOWBEAM 2.5 with the Twin Beam effect and interesting internal wash lens adds to this ability.”

SHOWBEAM 2.5 also features a user-changeable fixed color wheel, a variable CTO and the ability to produce an 11-degree fixed hard-edge profile with fast color change and Electronic Strobe. An LED tracking system encircles the lens. The profile can be rapidly zoomed from 11 to 33 degrees.

Look for SHOWBEAM 2.5 and other Barco lighting and control products to make more headlines as the touring season hits the heights this summer.

Okay, wow.Â Toyo Ito has designed a 100% solar powered stadium for the 2009 World Games that has a 40,000 seat capacity, can feed its excess power back into the community during the off-season, and has over 8,000 solar panels on its roof.Â Some info from the World Games website on the stadium:

The whole construction of the Main Stadium, with a capacity of 40,000 seats, designed by Toyo Ito, only required two years of work, and was finally tested for lighting facilities on January 15, 2009. It took over six minutes to power up the lighting in the stadium, which illuminates the track and field with 3,300 lux. Two jumbotrons screens on each side of the stadium, along with a surround sounding system, make this an international standard soccer field and facility, ensuring that it is the perfect venue for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the Rugby 7s and Flying Disc events.

The City of Kaohsiung is particularly proud of this project. During the construction period, no site accidents occurred, while the construction crew successfully overcame the technical difficulties presented by installing spiral steel girders and 8,844 solar panels on the roof.

Moreover, this stadium is notable for its eco-friendliness: the solar panels on the stadium roof generate 1.14 million kWh of electricity per year, thus reducing 660 tons of annual carbon dioxide output. In addition, all the raw materials used in the main stadium are 100% reusable and made in Taiwan.

This is amazing.Â Think of it – something that is built that is actually sustainable.Â I’m getting a little exhausted with all of the greenwashing lately, especially when 75% of it is total crap.

Nest is selling a fixture from designer Raimond Puts called the Moooi Raimond Suspension Light – a pendant/ball fixture of sorts, the Raimond has three sizes of 92, 162, or 252 LEDs.Â Hold on to your pants though, because the Moooi Raimond will run you between Â£1,076.00 – Â£2,514.00, which is like $242,554.67 USD.

I just lit Peter Pan at the reknowned Circa 21 Dinner Theatre in Rock Island, IL with the owner/producer Denny Hitchcock, director/choreographer Jim Hesselman, costumer designer Greg Hiatt, scenic designer/paint charge Susie Holgersson, and sound designer Ray Malone.Â Joel Gelpe is the music director, and Matt Carney worked his hind end off tenfold as my chief electrician.Â Starla Williams corralled us all for the project (she’s head of operations) and bought lunch and dinner way too many times.

This was an experience I will not soon forget – all good moments, a lot of work (a lot of work), and a collective amount of about 22 hours sleep in over a week.Â The theatre is unbelievably amazing and proud in all of its restored beauty – and along with a team of professionals that wanted to be there, I experienced an epiphany of art and collaboration that just happened one night during a rehearsal.Â Everything came together in one of those magic moments we all hope for in our art, and it was exactly what I needed before my year-long journey in Sweden.Â I wouldn’t trade out one older Altman 360Q, 65Q fresnel, R40 striplight, or Mole-Richardson 2.4K ERF for anything in this production.

Circa 21’s food is good, the wait staff performs before the show, and the theatre is mind-blowingly beautiful.Â If you’re within travel distance of Rock Island, IL, go support these folks.Â We’ve been getting great press – check out a review of the show from Mike Schulz at the River Cities’ Reader.

The theatre is amazing – have I mentioned that yet?Â My first order of business when I arrived onsite was to figure out how to dedicate several of my limited supply of dimmers to lighting the inside of the venue.Â Check out a few pics and a video: